A telepresence session is a specific type of teleconference, in which dedicated hardware is used to provide a high-quality video and audio conference between two or more participants. Typically, a telepresence session will involve a dedicated video endpoint, such as the CISCO TELEPRESENCE SYSTEM 500™ or the CISCO TELEPRESENCE SYSTEM 3000™, commercially available from Cisco Systems, Inc., at the location of each participant. These endpoints will communicate across a private network to provide a highly collaborative videoconferencing environment.
In many cases, a telepresence session might include communications that would be of interest to parties other than those directly participating in the session. Examples include earnings conference calls, sales presentations, and the like. Because of the specialized hardware requirements of a telepresence system, however, it is difficult, if not impossible for a party to participate in (or even watch) a telepresence session if that party does not have that hardware present at his or her location. Moreover, most telepresence sessions are conducted on private networks that are isolated from the Internet (and many possible interested viewers) by a firewall. Security policies at many organizations prohibit any type of incoming connection (such as an HTTP request) from a user outside the firewall that would like to view the telepresence system.
Accordingly, there is a need for tools and techniques that can provide content from telepresence sessions to users outside of the private network on which the telepresence session is conducted.